Chapter Five. The picture of church in Jesus’ head
Note: To read earlier chapters, go here and scroll down.
So, by the late 1980s, I had a clear picture in my head of what church was. The troubling question that came to me during this time (while I was on staff with a mega church!) was… “What picture did Jesus (and his followers) have in His head (or their heads)?” Amazingly, I don’t think I had ever thought about that.
This question moved me to begin to reread my New Testament. As I did, three ideas started to emerge. I would spend the next ten years trying to understand these ideas and trying to see how to implement them in the context of institutional churches. Here’s the first idea…
I saw that every church mentioned in the Bible met in a home and functioned like a small spiritual family. Now, I had faithfully read my bible for years but somehow I had completely overlooked this fact! (i.e., It didn’t fit my paradigm1 of church.) These early Christians lived life together. When they gathered for church, it was an experience of intimate family-like community. Here’s one place Jesus speaks about this…
Jesus: “Who are My mother and My brothers?” And looking about at those who were sitting in a circle around Him, He said, “Here are my mother and My brothers! Whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”2
One New Testament scholar says it this way…
“It is hardly accidental that the New Testament writers chose the concept of family as the central social metaphor to describe the kind of interpersonal relationships that were to characterize those early Christian communities.”3
In the church of 3000 where I was a pastor, a person could attend the church service every week for a year and never even sit next to the same person. Of course, we had small groups but they were secondary at best. Only a fraction of the people attending on Sunday were in a small group. Real “church” was what we did on Sunday morning in a sanctuary that sat 900. “And, oh, if you have time, we’d like you to be in a small group.”
This growing insight about church in the Bible was quite disturbing. What it meant was that my practice of church (and of everyone else that I knew at that time) was a significant departure from the practice described in the New Testament.
This new insight was disturbing because I had a strong commitment to the Bible. From the time I was 15, I had faithfully studied and taught the Scriptures. I (and my fellow Christian leaders) held to this statement: “The Bible is our authoritative guide for faith and practice.” The key word here was “practice”. What I was realizing was that our “practice” of church was quite different from what I was now seeing in the Bible.
A few of the pictures of church in the New Testament
- “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” Acts 2:46.
- In Rome. “Greet Priscilla and Aquila… and the church that meets in their house.” Rom. 16:3-5.
- From Ephesus. “Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.” 1 Cor. 16:19.
- “Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.” Col. 4:15.
- “To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier and to the church that meets in your home:” Philemon 2
Later, I learned that this way of thinking about church and of practicing church was not limited to the first century.
The New Testament Church began as a small group house church (Col. 4:15) and it remained so until the middle or end of the third century. There are no evidences of larger places of meeting before 300.4
My assumption was that the way the early followers of Jesus thought about and practiced church must have reflected what was in Jesus’ head on this subject. And, this was clearly not what had been in my head. This created something called cognitive dissonance5 in me. I was to wrestle with what this meant for the next ten years. I had not yet heard the phrase “vibrant families of Jesus”. But, already it was beginning to become clear that “family” was far more important in understanding “church” than I had ever understood.
Question to discuss with the Lord and your other friends: Does your church experience look and feel like “family”?
1 The word “paradigm” simply means a model or example. But, it can function like a filter through which we see the world. I realized that I had been reading the Bible through the lens of my experience in institutional churches and was blind to anything else.
2 Mark 3:33-35.
3 Joseph Hellerman, When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus’ Vision for Authentic Christian Community, p. 6. I read this book many years later but I think it captures the centrality of family for Jesus and the early church.
4 Snyder, ANTE PACEM. Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine, p. 166.
5 Cognitive dissonance was one of the few things I remembered from my time as sociology major in college. “In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time; performs an action that is contradictory to their beliefs, ideas, or values; or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas or values.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
My church of 3000 did feel very much like family to me. We had a youth group of 200, but had small groups and leadership teams. The adults very much felt like spiritual fathers and mothers. I felt like I could have spiritual intimacy with them. However, The sad thing to me was that I did not feel spiritual intimacy with my own family at home. And I could not figure out how to take this spiritual emotional intimacy into my school and my other relationships. It was like it all got stuck inside that church building. And my church was not helping me integrate those worlds. So, at 13 years old I distanced myself from my family of origin, pulled back out of school activities, and gave myself to my relationships at the church. But in doing so, I my world divided even further. From 16 on I began seeking to integrate these worlds: my spiritual and emotional world, with my family life, school life, and work life. The church unfortunately had no answers for me there. While I am thankful for the family like environment I experienced all through high school and college, I am deeply sad that our church could not help us take home what we were experiencing there in the building.
Toni, I love that you and your family are now one of the great examples in how to integrate church and family. Wonderful to see how God has answered the desire of your heart!
Hi I live in Tasmania Australia. I have had contact with Lk10 via a faithful Christian and Lk10 member, Jen n Thailand. Thank you John or encouraging Jen and I to contact each other. I am deeply in awe of her family’s work in their country of adoption.
In my small city, I have been learning about alternative ways Christians have been following Jesus in ways outside of institutional church, while also persisting in worshipping in those same churches.
Right now I feel I am at the end of my ability to deal with all that makes me feel like an outsider, and very anxious, such as the lack of a true family in the church, lack of true acceptance, cold shouldering by some etc.
Have not yet found it possible to move past the early part of church101 because of no 9thers to share it with.
Lk10 seems very attractive because of not having haf a close family experience myself growing up, nor in my adult life, except for friends and groups I have joined.
Toni, I agree with you about Jen and her family.
I hear your disappointment in not being about to find someone to share Church 101 with. I’m wondering if the Lord might have someone for you to do this with through the Internet. We’ve seen some very meaningful relationship develop that way.
Hi John,
I very much like this important chapter of your book. Over the last year a healthy house church family has developed in our home based on the various elements of the LK10 /C101 vision. Now that the group has come together well, we are asking Jesus to help our young spiritual family become exceedingly “vibrant! ”
What interested me especially in this chapter of your book were the various scriptures you quoted that described the quality of this “vibrancy” in the early church. For example:
< "Whoever DOES THE WILL OF GOD is My brother and sister and mother." Mark 3:33-35
<(LISTENING TO JESUS – and then doing the will of God – is nicely encouraged in LK10's Checking-in rhythm!)
< “They BROKE BREAD in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” Acts 2:46
(Whenever we SHARE MEALS TOGETHER it seems to double the quality of our meetings!)
(When we SHARE what we are GLAD / GRATEFUL about, it seems to help SINCERITY to grow.)
< “Aquila and Priscilla GREET YOU WARMLY in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.” 1 Cor. 16:19.
(GREETING EACH OTHER WARMLY seems to come naturally in a house church, and it helps the warmth of the relationships to grow.)
< “To Philemon our dear friend and FELLOW WORKER, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our FELLOW SOLDIER and to the church that meets in your home:” Philemon 2
(Philemon's house church family had many opportunities to work together, and they grew closer and dearer to each other because of this).
In any case, John, I especially appreciated what you put together that indicated what the day-to-day life of these early church families may have looked like.
Great stuff!
Thank you, Barb! I so value your encouragement.
Hi John,
Simon in Malaysia.
I am tracking what you are doing, and practising the two basic teachings – checking in, and hearing the voice of God. Hearing the voice of God is as simple as…. haha. I got the dvd’s in Catch the Fire in Toronto in October. Give me Presence of the Lord like that in a Home Church and no Arnott’s around (plus their ministry team – it’s not a one man band in there).
I see your bible references, but also consider Steven’s story, that wasn’t about Home Church, that was city style integration of Church. Bringing the tribes together into a new level of unity. And then Revelation and John as the voice of God. Who does He address? It’s not individuals running Home Church. It’s the Church of the city. One Church per city, One body in Christ, no denominations, no factions, although plenty of troubles, and even rebukes from on High. But He’s not telling them to stop operating that way, and go Home Church on its own. He’s telling them to get in line!! Jesus operated in the temple – surely a sizeable place. He ran conferences. He ran crusades. He pulled in thousands at one go, and then Steven & co had to come up behind Him and keep the fires burning. The Apostles did the same. Back to Steven. They appointed him, to let them carry on their own ministry. This is not a Home Church problem, it is a corporate thing; not designed to break up the Church into smaller units, but to fix some growing pains.
But yes they did operate as Home Church too. And we do here. And unfortunately, we don’t operate outside denomination, which is disappointing for me, SIB Church this SIB Church that haha. But that’s life as homo sapien haha. Flesh everywhere you go. Every value promoted by Luke 10 is essential, powerful and any Church I can see does not flourish without them. But it also needs unity in body, corporate value, corporate teaching, to maintain the Kingdom Values – or the rebukes of Revelation, they will still be there when the King finally shows up!!
I am not good in my corporate Church, because I struggle with the flesh that pollutes it. When my Senior Pastor dies, I feel like it will die also. Without his personal Kingdom Values…. But we do our bit to influence the place with our personal best shot at Kingdom Values, and we go around the world chasing God for everything that He’s handing down elsewhere – revival is not evident in Malaysia just yet, but it’s just around the corner. That kind of outpouring is not generally found in a Home Church – because its impact is on the nation wouldn’t satisfy our LORD. He puts His Power where it changes things, cleanses that land, changes the city’s atmosphere, changes the nation.
Everything you teach on relationship with the Father, Hearing His Voice, the Mark Virkler ten disc training – oh my Lord!! Bless, Bless, Bless, don’t curse. Checking in. Yes, Yes, Yes and AMEN!!! The undeniable, immense power of Home Church. Awesome!!!
But I’m really struggling with destruction of the corporate body haha.
I need some more Saul’s to become Pauls. Home Church? unlikely. I need a Carol Arnott, a Smith Wigglesworth in my suburb. Home Church? unlikely. I need to crash to the floor in the Presence of God, feel the over powering flow of Love running through my soul and spirit. So thick you can’t stand. Home Church? possible and ticked it on occasion. Yes Yes Yes haha. Oh God I love this stuff!!
My jig saw puzzle doesn’t go together yet. I got pieces all over the place haha. A work in progress. Lots of love. Simon
Thanks for your comments, Simon! Quite a lot there so difficult to respond to all of it. I do understand about your “jig saw puzzle”. I feel like the Lord has been putting pieces in place over the last 28 years. The key thing, I think, is to be attentive to the current “piece” He is working on. As I look back, it’s quite amazing to see all He has assembled.
Simon, the majority of believers and Bible experts agree with you. However, if there was even one Bible text that instructed believers how to meet in specially made cathedrals for large groups of believers to meet, all facing a platform where every expression is in strict one way communication, then I am sure you would have given that scripture. You didn’t give it because there isn’t one. Every one your conclusions to justify crowd oriented meeting is driven by situations that have nothing to do with the meeting of believers for an on going weekly basis. The NT reference to churches in a city have nothing to do with all believers in one city meeting in one room. This must be assumed into the text.
I understand the emotional draw of Bible experts who are highly skilled at impacting believers with zero mutual relationship to those believers ever in their life time. No one in the NT is a model of this, not even Jesus. These experts produce emotion but re-productivity of their ministry to others. Reproduction is the result of leadership, not emotional experiences. Luke 6:40. ” The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” Will you ever be “fully trained to be like” these experts? Probably not, but this was the goal of everything Jesus, and Paul, and every other NT leader.
I urge you to reconsider your belief in the power of crowd oriented church. The power of God in his perfected relationship qualities is in his intimacy, not in his ability to address crowds of people. The power of the church is in it’s mutuality, intimacy, and reproductivity of EVERYTHING Jesus displayed. The power of crowds facing a platform is a tragic substitute for God’s design.
Correction: Middle paragraph should say: “These experts produce emotional experiences but no reproductivity of their ministry to others.”